This book outlines Rubio's ideas for Florida, written in 2006, while he was a state legislator, but presumably at a time when he was considering a future run for US Senate. Rubio uses a process, which he calls "idearaising", to establish the list of ideas, as follows:

The 100ideas.org Plan of Action

Listen to the people's concerns

and their ideas for addressing them.

Outline a plan;

put it in writing;

Hold the leaders that are responsible for the results accountable.

Newt Gingrich signed onto the concept of "idearaisers" and in his book-jacket blurb suggests spreading the process to the other 49 states. This is the presumed reason that Gingrich was an early supporter of Rubio for Senate. Gov. Jeb Bush also bought in, writing a lengthy forward which is excerpted here.

While the concept of "idearaisers" sounds like a democratic process in the town-hall tradition, it is not. The results in this book indicate the political bias inherent in this process. There are no liberal nor progressive ideas here; only conservative ideas. An "idearaiser" event, if actually intended to solicit ideas from the general public, would have a mixture of liberal and conservative ideas. Somehow only the conservative ones make it into Rubio's list of 100 Ideas for Florida.

That means that, in effect, Rubio is using the "idearaisers" as cover to support his own preconceived solutions to Florida's problems. If you're a conservative who expresses an idea, it might make it into Rubio's list. In other words, if Rubio would have supported that idea anyway, he's happy to give a citizen credit for it. If you're a liberal who expresses an idea, you can be assured that your idea will not make it onto Rubio's list.

That's not to say that Rubio has any ill-intent. The ill intent is inherent in the partisan process of gathering ideas. I myself have served on numerous idea-gathering commissions, and I will attest that the process serves primarily to rubber-stamp the ideas of the organizers. For example, I once served on a commission intended to reform how candidates ran for the Democratic primary. I got appointed as one of several token progressives, while the process was run by the anti-progressive insiders of the Massachusetts Democratic Party. We progressives tried to run the numerous hearings like Rubio's stated intent of "idearaisers": we listened to all comers, regardless of their politics, and recorded their input in a summary report. The Mass Dems did their best to bury that report, since it actually represented real ideas from the public. The Mass Dems' purpose of the statewide hearings was to provide evidence to substantiate the reforms that the Party insiders wanted (i.e., to keep progressives off the ballot). Anyone who testified at the hearings was duly listened to, and then noted, by name and with a personal story, if their ideas matched the Party's ideas. And they were ignored if their ideas differed.

Rubio uses the same process. Certainly SOME of the thousands of people who provided ideas matched his preconceived solutions; they get cited in this book by name and with a personal story. But certainly SOME of people provided ideas that disagreed with Rubio, and we don't get to hear from them. So don't be fooled by the ostensibly democratic process: Rubio's "100 Ideas" are HIS ideas, despite the imprimatur of public input.